SNL’s Pete Davidson Opens Up About Mental Health Issues

Pete Davidson of Saturday Night Live fame has been candid about his struggles in recent years. Now, the 23-year-old comedic actor has revealed that he suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Davidson opened up about the matter during a podcast interview and explained,

Around October [or] September last year, I started having these mental breakdowns where I would, like, freak out and then not remember what happened after. Blind rage.

The announcement came during the Monday, September 25 episode of the WTF With Marc Maron podcast, which featured a sit-down interview with Pete Davidson. The SNL funnyman said he initially thought his use of marijuana was what caused the problems he described, but they ultimately turned out to be symptoms of BPD.

Before the mental and emotional problems became overwhelming, Pete Davidson was an advocate for medicinal marijuana use. He participated in SNL sketches about weed, and he occasionally spoke about the benefits he perceived while using marijuana to ease his Crohn's disease. But when Davidson began to suspect his marijuana use was causing his mental anguish, he sought help from a rehabilitation program to help him quit smoking weed.

While Pete Davidson was in the program, the doctors suggested that he might suffer from bipolar disorder. The physicians put Davidson on medication to help him with the condition they suspected, but Davidson fell back into his old habits when he left the program. Therefore, he was not only taking the bipolar medicine but also smoking marijuana.

Luckily, the comedian collected himself once he noticed his breakdowns and feelings of rage boiling up again. He quit pot and sat out SNL for a while to focus on his well-being. Then he reemerged during season 42 and announced during Weekend Update that he had left drugs in the past and become sober for the first time in eight years. Pete Davidson explained how lucky he felt to have the support of his girlfriend and his fans, and he shared some encouraging words for people feeling a lack of hope in their life.

However, as time went by, the symptoms of his BPD did not go away because, of course, he thought the problems were bipolar and marijuana use. A few months passed, and Pete Davidson was still experiencing the same challenges, so he realized something bigger was at play. He talked to his psychiatrists, who finally adjusted the diagnosis from bipolar to BPD. Regarding what life with BPD looks like, Davidson said,

I'm depressed all the time.

That outlook sounds pretty dark. But Pete Davidson did say he is getting help with talk therapy, and he takes new medications that specifically target BPD. He said that this year has been hard for him, but he did say that the therapy sessions and correct medications seem to be working "slowly but surely."

Pete Davidson began working on Saturday Night Live during the show's fortieth season in 2015. SNL veteran Bill Hader had met Davidson on the set of Trainwreck and took notice of Davidson's acting chops. Hader called up Lorne Michaels, and long story short, Davidson landed the job. When he started on SNL, some critics hailed Davidson as the one to watch. Hopefully, Davidson will be back and better than ever now that he is tackling his BPD.